Born to Sri Lankan-Tamil parents in Switzerland, Priya Ragupathylingam (better known as Priya Ragu), grew up listening to Kollywood songs and Tamil music from legends like A R Rahman and Illaiyaraaja, which inspired her and connected her to film songs at a young age. From having jam sessions with her father to now performing in front of millions of people as an independent artist, Priya has not only made a name for herself in the music industry but also paved the way for Tamil music on the global stage.
Recently, the artist visited India for the NH7 Weekender music festival in Pune where she performed for the first time in India and left the audience in awe of her talent. Priya Ragu, though a Swiss singer-songwriter, has always tried to incorporate Tamil lyrics and music in her songs, fusing the best of both worlds and delivering hit tracks one after the other. When asked about her thoughts on Indian music and how it’s reflecting on the global stage, Ragu said, “I feel like more and more music from India is coming to the West and artists like me, we fuse into the Western music and create what we know. For me, Indian music is spiritual. It’s authentic music.”
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Priya made her debut single Good Love 2.0 in 2020 and rose to prominence amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “I kind of blurred out everything that was going on and I just focused on my craft. I felt like we had nothing else to do so I had to use this time to make things happen,” she said, remembering how the journey started for her.
“When I wrote Lighthouse it was very clear to me that I had to come to India, to Mumbai, to shoot the music video. That was actually the start of my career because my intuition was telling me to go to India for the visuals, even though I didn’t have the budget for that. I am happy I did it,” Priya said as she recalled the making of one of her most popular songs, Lighthouse.
The singer’s latest venture and debut studio album is called ‘Santhosam’, which translates to ‘Happiness’ in Tamil.
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